What can we say about Hawkwind? Certinaly nothing describes their prime-era better than Julian Copes words - "They were a collection of disreputable star rats fuelled by a battery of hallucinogenic influences and united only by an incorrigible sense of psi-powered, pre-1976 cosmic punk rock attitude broken off and gobbled as though it was their sole means of sustenance while playing riffs into the grooves with an relentless head of steam. The rhythmic repetitions offset by wordless trance-chants are hypnotic to the core and the whole mess is performed at raw and rambunctious paces as it blazes with one damn racket with nowhere to go but hurtling through space at the sound of speed, anyway. Towards anything and everything. With the jaws of black oblivion not far behind nipping at their respective asses they were already in process of playing off of so furiously. For they sank a couple hundred pounds of pressure into one square foot and punched it in with a single, swift and confident stroke of a psychic ball-peen hammer at the only point on reality’s windscreen overlooking the edge of oblivion where in its entirety, its safety glass pane turned into a sightless fog of equal, fracturing veins before shuddering weightlessly apart and floating gently outwards into the future".
Our cast of stellar devotees surely know all this and put it to good use in their interpretations of classic Hawktracks in the Sonic Attack triology of 7"s.
Sonic Attack (Motorheads) are Mudhoney and Mugstar. Mudhoney go for the jugular with their combustive version of Urban Guerilla. It takes the original's MC5-on-angeldust vibe and cranks the rama-lama into the red. In short Mudhoney make it their own - filthy, distorted, bluesy, hooky, droney, grungy, stumbling, ass-kicking rock and roll. Mugstar take Born to Go and lift-off into a roaring, brittle flight that threatens to never land. The instruments are wielded as weapons of psychic warfare as the Sonic Assassins tear into the track in the most reckless and stupor-fying ways.
Limited edition 7" in full colour picture sleeve.
Nov 2008, TR013.
This is sold out from trensmat.com but is available from our distributors - Cargo in the UK or Aquarius, Revolver & Thrill Jockey in the US and other good online vinyl stockists.
Mudhoney - Urban Guerilla
Mugstar - Born to GoSupport :
Each band taking a Hawkwind favourite of their choice - Mudhoney opts to re-drill ‘urban guerrilla’ - this version is culled from a session set recorded for the late Mr Peel way back in September 2002 and aired the following month and sees Arm and Co on top of their game, a pile driving and scalding skulking beatnik blistered babe, the godfathers of the Seattle scene post their best cover since squaring up to Thee Milkshakes ’she’s just fifteen’ for the Mod Showdown split with the Halo of Flies, this no nonsense speaker spanker sounds like its just tripped through a rip in the time continuum straight outta a mid 60’s primitive Detroit garage beat scene rehearsal all prime packed and dandily adorned in all manner of hip hugging strides, toe tapping struts and hairy wig flipping beatnik grooves. Flip the disc and you’ll find Mugstar running the gauntlet through ’born to go’ and setting the controls to embark on a hulking cosmic bliss grooved odyssey to oblivion, this astral planed babe is riddled and wracked with a punishing array of head locked grinds and super charged kraut motifs that at times sounds like a seriously shit faced Sonic Youth fronting up the mite of Mountain, a stoned space titan whose intensity teeters towards supernova as it drags you kicking and screaming with its unrelenting skull bloodying ferocity through a mind evaporating white noise vortex. One for the aural astral alchemists among you.
Losing Today
The Mudhoney tune 'Urban Guerilla' is a no nonsense balls out rocker dripping with testosterone and reminding me of MC5. It's a gargantuan monster that's literally tearing up the office. They sound like they're about to explode such is the intensity. Proper on fire, full on raw as fuck rocker. Mugstar do 'Born To Go' taking no prisoners. Again this is a good old sweaty beer and leather rocker with a cosmic twist. The relentless riff just keeps going and at one point I thought the poor office stereo was going to take off. Bloody great.
Norman Records
Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.
So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was.
Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7":
The first of the three, subtitled "Motorheads", features two aQ favorites (as do they all), Mudhoney and Mugstar. Mudhoney tackle "Urban Guerilla" and totally make it their own, so much so, that minus a little chunk of extended droney space rocking in the middle, those not well versed in Hawkwind would certainly be forgiven for thinking it was a Mudhoney original. Mugstar on the other hand are a DEAD ringer for Hawkwind, their sound murky and muddy, squalls of psych guitar, clouds of swirling spaced out FX, droned out jams, all tangled up and slowly unwinding into a long sprawling space rock jamscape. Hawkwind would be proud.
The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, with naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!
Aquarius Records
